Why teacher training is the overlooked route to a stronger special education system

Special needs education for students with disabilities in Ontario is in crisis.

However, the solution may not simply be more money or more oversight.

A recent report published by the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario detailed troubling findings on special needs education within the province, including students with special needs sometimes being sent home, or asked to stay home, without schools tracking the frequency of incidents and context.

The report’s findings and recommendations have been welcomed by many who have seen these problems play out in real time.

A common response centres on the call for more funding and more oversight to address the problems identified.

Given that school boards generally spend more on special education than allocated, increased funding could seem a logical solution.

Also, given the apparent lack of adherence to some current rules, a call for tightened guidance could appear appropriate.

However, while both funding and oversight could play a role in improvement, both miss an essential aspect of education.

In the same way that passengers on a plane are flown by pilots, special education supports and services are planned, delivered and evaluated by classroom teachers in conjunction with other educators.

These supports and services enable educational access, opportunity and growth for the over 350,000 students with special education needs in Ontario .

This is to say: Special education supports and services happen because teachers make them happen.

And these teachers, like all professionals, require adequate training and support to grow and thrive in the job.

What the report detailed Ontario’s Auditor General report also named other key issues related to special needs education, such as: insufficient individualized education goals (i.e., the core of special education programming for individual students); long wait lists for assessment and missing support personnel; opacity in the most critical educational decision-making; a lack of parent engagement, and other concerns.

Beyond the audit report, issues with special education delivery have been a regular occurrence in the news, including stories about seclusion and restraint among other safety concerns and unexpected program closures .